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-ON THE- 



POLITICAL SITUATION 

OF MISSISSIPPI. 



Messrs. Jno. W. Vance, John P. Caruthers, Thomas S. Tate^ James H. Scaife and 
others, Hernando, Mississippi : 

Gentlemen : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter o^ 
the 1st inst. In that communication j^ou inform me that a meeting is to be convened 
at Hernando on the 12th, for the purpose of public counsel on the policy of the 
State. My good friends, the Hon. J. W. C. Watson, Gen'l W. S. Featherston and 
Col. H. W. Walter, you inform me, will assist on the occasion by addresses on the 
duty of the hour; and you pay me the compliment of an invitation to contribute the 
result of my reflections on the political situation, to the mass of opinion which you 
propose to bring out. In answer to vour invitation. Gentlemen, I regret to say that, 
tho' tempted to accept by a sense tf duty to my own interests, to the interests of 
my fellow sufferers of Mississippi, and to the complimentary spirit of your letter, 
the demands of my business, place it out of my power to take part in your well- 
timed meeting. \ 

The ardent temper of our people generally, makes them, naturally, partisans. That 
bent of our Southern natures has done, in the prosperous past, effective service to party 
discipline; but in the terrible present, that has come upon us it threatens to prove fatal. 
The temper of the partisan has had its day; the temper proper to our position 
now is that of statesmanship. Men will, for example, tell you that I am a Radical; 
and by that simple cry, arm against me an array of factious passions covered by an 
ahaitis impassable to the approach of reason. This is of the madness of those 
whom the gods wish to destroy. Even tho' I be, in reality, a very Radical, writh- 
ing as I am under iC ban of treason, does it follow that when we are looking around 
for counsel against the dangers imipending over us all, my words, unpalatable tho' 
tli«y are, may not, aft^r all. bft thf words of tvisdom and sound policy? 



'M 



J:? 



Olap-irap and passion are, I repeal, out of place iu th5s moniuutof ourgrevioua tnb- 
nlafciou. If the advice prompted by my poor judgmcjnt be really the best, let it, in 
God's name, be adopted. I am perfectly ready to adopt a more effective j^licy tho 
moment I shall have been shown it in a discussion terap(jredby the fraokness, modera- 
tion and earnest gravity, proper to gentlemen deliberating on the means of saving 
all that remains to them of liberty and fortune. 

Opinion in Memphis has, I am told, denounced nie as a radical. When a pre- 
existing majority of whites had been supydementedby l;he extension of suffrage to th-^ 
blacks,°I repudiated the fond delusion which counted a few weeksago on the defeat of 
Gov. Brownlow, Did that anticipation of the event make me a radical? Reasoning 
from my convictions as to the then-coming state of afl[\iirs in Tennessee. I have, 
certaiiily, held for months past that,, let the whites of Mississippi say or do what the^^ 
will, the Sta.teM'ill go on without let or hindranfic with the jvork of i-ecpnstruCtSia'.T" 
Docs that conclusion of my judgment make me a radical? But wh'etlier rranical '* 
or not, the true test of my opinions is that of their truth or their wisdom; and I wili 
therefore pass by the out-cry of faction to put their truth and wisdom briefly in proof. 



01 iooU, tne WiUte maies ui luui, oiai-c iiumu^x^K,. -.w,v/v^v./, .^^..^^.^ i^.i..,.^ ^j.^,wv 
The estimated majority of the registration in 'Alabama may therefore be approxim^ 
ted from the data of the ce.isus of 1860, by deducting from the black males seveiitv- 
two per cent, of the while males. In other words: assuming that the negro adults of 
Habaraa have not decreased since ISGO, , the white male adults of ihat State hava 
disappeared from its suffrage by death and disfranchisement to tho extent of cwent;Kv.!;.- ' 
eight per cent, of all the white males ! ^ , „ , . .'''^^ 

Registration has been completed in Louisiana. In that btate there is, acqord-p 
jnr-tothe newspapers, a black majority of ::]0.000. The white males of Louisiana; ^^|^ 
numbered in 1860, 190,000; the black males 180,000. The actual majority oi votcr^rj:. ^^ 
.nay be approximated in that case by subtracting from the total number of black.j-.jg 
males seventy-nine per cent, of oil the white males. Death and disfranchisement have ; / 
done their work, therefore, amongst the a iult whites of Louisiana— assuming the 
adult blacks not to have decreased since I860,— to the extent of twenty-one per 
cent of all the males of the State ! • a i v 

The light shed upon our position by the facts of registration m Aiabama 
and Louisiana, may serve as a torch to guide us through our Plutonian darkness. Ihe 
census of 1860 sets down the colored males of Mississippi at 220,000; t.ie white 
males at 186,000. On the basis of the approximation made above for Alabam;^. 
these figures foreshadow the result of registration amongst ourselves at a colored 
majority of 86,000! ■ On the basis of the approximation which has been deduced 
from the facts in Louisiana, the negro majority on the registration of Mississippi, 
will reach 75,000 ! The general truth embodied in those estimates ot the proba^ 
unties of the case is, certainly, not overstated when I assert that the military biii 
fastens down upon us, for weal or for woe, all the consequences of a large negro 

majority. ^ i i • r fV 

Follow out the general facts prese:nted here, and the foreshnaowings. ol tat 
military bill are equally explicit. Take the uverage deduction from the white males 
as shown in the above approximation for Alabama and Louisiana, at twenty-five pci 
cent.; and follow out the inquiry as to the dislrihutiov, of the negro majority tlirough- 
out the several counties of the State. Of the sixty counties of Mississippi, three, 
represent cases of close votes as betv/een the whites and blacks, but majorities lu 
favor of the negroes hold absolutely in no leas tlian nbirty-two counties. Not only \^ 



the Gtovernor of tlic State subject to the choice of the colored vote; but so also m tti^ 
House of llepreaeutatives, the Senate, and the court of last resort. Mark you: the 
court of last resort. The brute force which lies ready to sustain that state of affairs 
wo have no mea,ns of wrestling with save that embodied in our brains. 

Tiie Loyal league is upon yoii. Even a brief experience of the workings o: 
that votmg macliine vrould satisfy you, as it has nio, that all which our people claia 
for tbeiailueuce^ of the "old master" on the freedmr.ii is neither more nor leos thai. 
noH5(^«5a..;Tbe terrible necessities of our position demand blunt speaking. Tht: 
^enorj^l %ct on the face of the late electioi in Tennessee ought to satisfy the dullesi ■ 
intelligcnjcg -as to die power of . the "old master" in - the presence of the Loyai 
League.'. 'If any one fail to accept that proof, I commend^ his muddy reflection to the 
case" of those hundreds of gentlemen in Mei>5phi.s who, in a resentment not moro 
reprehensible for its folly tlip,u for its injustice, are said to' have diamis-sed for th'-- 
e.xercise of the right of suftViig'o'freely and independently, those trusty negroes who 
have. occupied towards them the confidential relation of their Porters, their Messec- 
;:ers,]thoir Body-seryants. Tlie^old master,' gentlemen, has passed from fact to poetry! 
^Holding that in this State, a large majority of the voters under the- Militar> 
IWW arc blacks; hohi^pg that undei^ the state of opinion which exists to-day amongsi 
the vylutes. that majority lalis'By political gravitation into the hands of radicaiis'x: 
and holding that the question of ' a convention is consequently settled beyond ai' ■ 
possibility of defeat, call me what passion may, my acceptance of the inevitaWr,:-;/? 
leads m,e, in contemptuous indifference to the babble of v/eak-pated partisanship, to 
nake an eavnest attempt to avert material and political ruin from myself, rov fami'~cr 
* y and my fellow-suiferors of the State generally, by the only means available for thai ' 
purpose — ncgotiaiio'd. I stand ready to ask terms from the r:\dicala. 

The 'man whospcaks of the policy of the party in power as one actuated by passioti. 
t cannot stoop to notice. Oiir reasoning must begin at a higher level. I proceed. 
Uiereforc, to canvass the course of the radicals in order to ascertain its object. Thai 
lone, the question before us will be ds to whether oy not we cannot Bresent to the 
iiviijcible power in whose grasp we writhe, other means of arriving at that object than 
ti)osq involving our own destruction. And that question, Crenrlemen, is one whicii 
.ioither you nor I can afford to deal with in any other mood than that of cool-headed 
deliberation. 

The legislation of congress is evidently d.recteil more ilmn ordinarily by 
ao necessities of party. A sectional organization must necessarily prove sS-.orL- 
• vcd. The republicans deem it, therefore, a necessity to obtain support at iht 
<outh. K.egro suffrage is a logical sequence from that fact : the radicals i\iiled tc 
nd, ill all this broad section of ours, any hope of support amongst the whites, 
'pposcd to that measure themselves save as a necessity of power, they accepted it 
ithfear and trembling as to its effoc^ upon their popularity at the North. That 

• -Tect has not yet taken fonn. Republican apprehension may be assumed anxious 
cut it, down^to the. least di^v'?n^ions. ^Blaek Senators or black membera of the 
iLouse ^5are§uIt_of that' t^ is 'a possibility which the radical^ mav be fjiirh 
.eld to ry^(u\f A^i|:i^eak'; ;.^^ vrhitonian sent to the Senate or to the Lower House q\ 

• ongr^ed^ by.a feYass^bf snfft-?i^c purely negi-6, is al.>o a contingent sequence of color- 
;d enri-HJichisemerit -that,, in reviewing republican reflection, may be set do^>\\ as one 
li-om which tiip^reat borlj' of the party would gladly csc;ipe. These considerations 
and 9tlje^'S tod; cx^ffiplex lo be entered into 'here, point to the high expediency thr.L 
may be supposed to actuate the radicals in favor of a: 'support embracing not onb. 
S'>utbern blacks but also Southern whites. 

I sm not propr.rod to hold r::d:cnii;.m, ia its dcaM:-:f] with me and mine, tc meas- 



ures of desperation. Enthusiasts are free to do as they pleaae; but, I belong to the 
school of men that does not shrink from parley with even ruin. My mental vision 
is afflicted more or less with a blindness which fails to see the yellow-glory said 
to surround the head of martyrdom. 

The people of Mississippi can afford no better than the radicals themselves, to 
permit the organization of parties here to drift into distinctions of color. Black and 
white, rich and poor, our people may well shrink from that condition of things, char- 
ged, as it may be fairly assumed to be, with all the unspeakable horrors of a war of 
races. The expediency which, in defence of party power on the one hand, and of 
social existence on the other, is seen, thus, to be common to the radical and the 
Mississippian, I propose to utilize. I propose to employ it as a ground on which to 
make terms with the radicals on the part of the people of the State of Mississippi, 
If this be radicalism, then indeed, gentlemen, do I confess that I am a thorough 
radical; and give to the poor babblers who cry fie upon my views, the full benefit of 
that available fact for clap-trap. 

The colored man comes, as well as the white man, within the scope of my pro- 
posed negotiation. Free, erect, enfranchised, with all the rights of American citi- 
zenship attaching to him, the terms which I seek to obtain shall not be one iota 
more to your advantage or to mine than to his. All that Congress has given him I 
accept as his with all my heart and conscience. I propose to vote with him; to discuss 
political aifairs with him; to sit, if need be, in political counsel with him; and from 
a platform acceptable alike to him, ta me, and to you, to pluck our common liberty 
and our common prosperity out of the jaws of inevitable ruin. 

The mixed party which I suggest, must be made acceptable to Congress- 
ional loyalty. The rejection of the delegation of Kentucky by the Federal Congress 
shows that we can make negotiation with the Northern majority on no other basis. That 
condition lies at the very foundation of the alliance on which my wrestle with ruin 
proposes to rest amongst ourselves. And, furthermore, the power with which I seek 
to make terms for our people of all complexions, would reject, peremptorily, any 
party with an organization permitted to embody an element obnoxious to the suspic- 
ion of treachery in the approaching struggle for place with the democracy of the 
North. 

Old memories are said to give color to my views on the policy of the State, 
— my liberties some may suppose not precious to my soul. Unless partisan hostil- 
ity hold me to be less than a man, less than even a brute, it must concede to me 
some regard for the well-being of my wife and children. The bread of these be- 
loved ones, like that, gentlemen, of vour own families, is at stake on the question 
which I consider in this letter; and surely that fact ought to be an ample guarantee 
that the advice I give my fellow sufferers in this time of our common affliction, is 
not likely to be more earnest than it is dispassionate. Whether the cry "old whig !" 
"old whig !" be continued against me or not, I feel it my duty to state here that 
every interest of the State, material and political, demands absolutely that those of 
our leaders who have been original secessionists shall be excluded from all our at- 
tempts to make terms for the relief of our people. 

The people of the South have been blended in Northern opinion with the plans 
of the Northern democracy. The hatred with which that body is regarded by the 
republicans will expose any political movement of the Southern whites to searching 
suspicion. Our salvation depends, therefore, on saving all attempts for its accom- 
plishment from every trace of democratic sympathy. 

The old unionists of the South have no especial reason to love, no hankenng 
memories to yearn for, that Northern t^^-^^^ ■whjrl^ r.r>t*>-o'i ^i^ fb'' deso^et'cn cf tr*^'" 



5 

homes by an act of political treachery. And these unionists are, furthermore, th« 
only men of the South -whose participation in the rebellion can be supposed to re- 
ceive from the stern loyalty of the party in power, that breadth of indulgence which 
may be counted on as a concession from the memories of former fellowship. 

The confidence which, evidently, is the first condition of a succcessful movement 
for obtaining terms from congress can, I insist, be obtained in no other way than by ex- 
cluding from the movement all others than the men known in the phrase of the pro- 
secession period as unionists, whether "old linewhigs," or "Douglass democrats." 

The limitation that I put upon the organization contemplated for bringing us within 
the scope of negotiation, is not fixed by choice, but by fact. The political bitter- 
ness of which I am accused has, I entreat you to believe, not been by any means 
the suggesting consideration in this scheme for our safety. Nor be assured, does the 
plan deduced here from the position of the question under consideration, contemplate 
for a moment that the men with whom I am associated in pleasant and kindly mem- 
ories of the stump and forum for twenty long years, shall, whatever may have been 
the errors of their judgment as leaders, be excluded with my consent from the full 
enjoyment of all their rights and privileges as free-born Americans. I committed 
m;v self as you know to the madness of the revolution; but tho' that act was prompted by 
my devotion to my people against every dictate of my judgement, need I declare to 
you that I should be ashamed to seek for myself in this moment of political retribu- 
tion, a restoration to any rights of person or property on the condition that the 
like measure of those rights be withheld from any man who participated with me in 
that fatal mistake ? I shall never cease to protest with all the earnestness of my 
devotion to civil liberty, that every Mississippian, be his military grade or private 
fortune what it may, shall be restored to the full enjoyment of the heritage of free- 
dom wrung by the commingled blood of our forefathers from the grasp of crowned 
monarchy. 

A mixed party of unionists can obtain for us that great remedy for all our 
troubles — representation. 

With a platform guaranteeing to the freedraan all his rights as a citizen, pro- 
viding generously for the education of his children, securing to him, by its exemption 
from seizure for debt, the enjoyment of a homestead, an influential and respectable 
mass of white people of Mississippi may maintain their position as advisers of the old 
and devoted servants of the South — the colored people. The alliance thus consti- 
tuted will represent the political power of the State, and will therefore have reached 
the attitude of an authority under which it may open negotiations with the 
dominant party of the North, on the basis of the abolition of the cotton tax, the recon- 
struction of the levees, the earliest possible restoration to full political rights of all 
those of our people who are now proscribed, and such additional concessions as 
may be found on enquiry to be obtainable. 

This brief review of the scheme I propose, need not go into the terms which will 
be extorted from us in exchange for our political and material safety. We will, of 
course, endeavor to obtain all we can, and except so far as may be demanded by our 
good faith, will seek to obtain it on the best possible conditions. 

A constitutional amendment setting the question of secession forever at rest, 
all unionists of the South will accede to gladly. They will undoubtedly enter into 
any mutual guarantee for the sanctity of the bonded debt, of the pensions of soldiers, 
and of all rights vested, whether North or South. On the question of the Presi- 
dency, I have no hesitation now, as I have not had heretofore, in declaring my own 
preference for General Grant; but will urge that the new organization bow gracefully 
+0 the f^hnicp cf thr coiigr^Hf^jonal parrr, prnvid^d nnlv thai th'- man rh''srn ghsll 



not Jxive' committed himself' tp.dby policy at cOttflikT\it.h the spirit aad inteniici.i 
of the toi-ms of tl)0. negotiation. .' ' ,' y 

This policy Will clraw the lightening from tneihreatening eloiul of univerFi.; 
Buffraf^c. It will save the people of Mississippi from a domestic radiealisrxi infinit:. 
ivmore dangerous to both black and ^vhite than that Vrhich has just triumphed ir. 
Tennessee. Having given the. Northern organization -whose governing passion i' 
hatred of the Northern democracy, a resp'ectable position at the South, the raised 
body which 1 propose^ will have inaugurated that happy "time when, party purposes 
accomplished and revolutionary violence at ah end, a magnanimous spirit, anxious^ 
to conciliate the; people of the State, will throw open political privilege ungrudging 
Iv to those of our leaders who are held for the mo"nent under the ban attaching 1 
the supposition of' treasonable sentiments toward the Government. 

My opinion as Xo the duty of tlic hour rests, you will have seen, on no abstrust 
deductions ofl,avv,.,./rhe Kentucky resolutions possess nornore interest to the des 
perate necessities of the State here than do Doctor Gliddoii's mummies.— 
Between the President on the one hand and the Congress on the other, 
the constit\iiiiQu ,,. is , entitled in this exigency to little more attention 
than it ma.y-,;;i-ec.9^ve at the ' hands of some curious antiquary. My reflections 
as to the means- of savhig tlic State take no notice of those fossils of the^ pre-secev- 
Bioa period. 'Your meeting has been called, I assume, with the view of dealing: 
practically with, a revolution which rushes onward in fierce career; and I, therefore, 
i.d\k% regardless of all old time formularly, that, as a bold man does ir, 
the GasB'of/a i-uu-j,w ay- horso whose bridle he essays to grasp, y^e first run on zvith ■!■ 
for a distance sujjicieid t& citeck.iis sppcd. " ^ , , ^, 

The gravity of the interests involved in the condition of pohticai atiair: 
has led me to decide on the enforcement, as well as I am able, of the counseic 
sketched here, upon the people of Mississippi. With that view I contemplatv 
a, canvass of, at least, the most accessible portions of the State ; and 
when ei:itering on it shall, in acknowledgment of your coniplimentary request thai 
.1 address your people at sometime subsequent to the r2th, begin the work at Her- 
nando. Press of business prevents me from deciding when I can commence thai 
self-imposed task ; but hoping that I will be able to do so in about two weeks, I ca:, 
only say now, that as soon as'circumstances enable me to determine, I shall publi-1: 

my appointments. 

Thanking you for the consideration which prompted you to invite me to V'-ui 

ineoling, I have the honor to be, gentlemen, with sincere respect, 

Your present fellow-su.Tci-er ir.ci. fcrTrier fellow-citizen, 

J. L. ALCORN' 

Friar's :^oint. Miys., Aug. 8, 18G7. 



